and thanks to the internet, internationally orders coming in from fresno to france, from roanoke to russia. it seems once they taste it, well-- >> my mom always said word of mouth is the best advertisement. >> particularly when the words taste so good. >> mike: there is no business that is recession proof but there is one that comes close: pets, and all the stuff people buy for them. americans spent over $50 billion on their pets in 2011, the largest chunk of that on food. there are more of them than kids and we spend more on them than on our husbands and wives. pets. and if the slow-food movement is all the rage for humans than sparky, bucky, cuddles, and toots aren't far behind. >> it is totally inspired with what we were doing with our own food. things that we were buying inspired we should be applying these same ideas to the pet food, the fact that we only eat local and our pet food should be local as well. we thought pet owners would like that idea. >> mike: they did, in large numbers. so large, five-year-old san francisco-based small batch pets is one of the fastest growing companies